Controlled Inquiry Rates of Clinical Interviews in Telehomecare

Conceived to acquire personal information for an electronic medical record, the clinical interview contains probing questions. The number and type of inquiries are assumed to fulfill medical protocols, and therefore are deemed essential for treatment - but the rate can and should be controlled. High rates of inquiry merely intimidate the patient and affect replies. The purpose of this paper is to mathematically formulate permissible rates of clinical interviews held during telehomecare virtual visits and designed to avoid patient anxiety. Mental stress is derived as a function of the weight of importance assigned by the patient, virtual visit duration, and the rate of questioning in the direction of greater sensitivity. Two operations are of interest: Collecting and recording information by the provider, and maintaining synchrony of questions and answers by the patient. The Lorentz transformation yields the patient’s view of the operational rates. Conservation of information momentum is postulated and applied before and after replies are recorded. It is shown that the weight of importance designated by the patient to collecting and recording personal information is driven by a singularity that depends on the rate of questioning. The findings should serve as a guideline in interviewer training programs.